In light of our upcoming search for a new guide for our active wine tours, we asked one of our longtime guides, Kris Thomas, to share her personal favorite aspects of guiding
People. Happy People!
This is surely the top reason for me. I love people. While I am guiding, I get to see people at their best: on vacation! People having fun, full of endorphins from the exercise they have been craving. People full of smiles because they are removed from their normal routines. People who are sometimes having life-altering experiences because of the travel they are doing and the other people they are with. I get to watch this and, in many cases, help be the catalyst for this transformation! And when the trip is over and these lovely people go back to their homes and their jobs, we have forged a bond through such a concentrated experience and memories that we can share for years. Later, I get to reconnect with them via email, or Facebook, or a trip together to a new location. I tell you, this is fabulous. Back in the early days of Zephyr, we used to call this Human Magic, and there is no doubt that it exists.
Traveling, Learning, and Getting Comfortable
Each time I travel to a new place, I devour information ahead of time, learning about the culture, the language, the geography, the history, the people and the places. It is so wonderful that this is part of my job as a guide! I like to live outside my comfort zone whenever I can, but often by the time I leave a new place, it has become like a broken-in pair of shoes and I want to never take them off. I dive deeper into truly knowing a place each time I return, for it is another version of home to me now! I cherish greeting old friends and staying in their homes with them; visiting familiar haunts and new ones, too; trying out a new restaurant in town or discovering a new trail. Then I get to share all that knowledge with my Zephyr travelers, who usually don’t have the time to do this on their own. This is the essence of being a guide.
Moving My Feet
Movement is a benefit that one can easily take for granted. The fact is, like many of you I am chained to my desk most of my working hours. I get to spend a handful of weeks a year, however, under human power, be it cycling in the Dolomites, skating my favorite trail in Idaho, or hiking in Glacier National Park. These are the days I live for and they keep me motivated the rest of the year to work at least a couple hours a day at my treadmill desk, spend time at the gym on the bike trainer during the winter months, or keep in shape for inline skating by playing ice hockey.
Things Going As Planned. Or Not
There is nothing as gratifying as hearing a Zephyr traveler say to me “this trip just seemed seamless…everything went so smoothly!” I politely say thank you, but always fight the urge to spill the beans on everything that definitely did not go smoothly. And it almost always does not go smoothly behind the scenes. Oh, the stories I could tell! No matter how great your plans and intentions are, the universe can interfere by throwing pebbles (and sometimes boulders) in your path. But I love that part of guiding, too. Having everything go smoothly is the ideal, but there is something quite satisfying about being able to fix problems, solve challenges and have everything turn out fine. Have you heard this phrase being bandied about? “Everything will be okay in the end. If it’s not okay, it’s not the end.” It’s my mantra when all hell breaks loose unexpectedly.
Guiding is great fun and hard work. These are the black-and-white givens. In between, guiding is also skipping stones in a Patagonian lake, teaching dozens of middle-aged women how to inline skate, explaining the difference between champagne, cava, and prosecco, fixing flat tires on the white roads of Tuscany, trekking to Machu Picchu with an 84-year-old, patching up a blister, fostering romances (a couple of which have resulted in permanent unions), becoming proficient at driving large vans on tiny roads, smuggling watermelons in your backpack to surprise a group at the end of a hot and dusty trail, presenting impromptu awards for special milestones, remaining calm under pressure, hugging, laughing and saying “see you again, friend.”
Know anybody who might enjoy this type of job? We are hiring a guide for our active wine tours.
The position has been filled. We’ll announce on our blog when we have another job opening!